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T H E T E R R Y R E P O R T
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KEPetersen
As a Republican, I...find the treatment of Michelle Obama by certain members of my party to be shameful.
While each first lady will always have her detractors, criticism has most often been civil if robust. However, a quick look at the comments associated with any 'red meat' article on the First Lady on, say, FoxNews.com reveals a significant and sickening number of racist and bigoted remarks that would make a Klansman proud. I'm convinced that the vitriol directed at Michelle Obama is, for the most part, grounded in racism.
Beyond the racial elements associated with these attacks, there is also an obvious double standard applied to Mrs. Obama. Case in point: Sarah Palin has lambasted the First Lady for her work in reducing obesity in children. Palin believes this is interference with a parent's exclusive duty, and neither the government nor any other outside party should butt in with advice or suggestions. Social conservatives applaud such broadsides, ignoring Palin's pet (and ironical) cause: teenage pregnancy.
How educating parents on how to feed their children healthier food is considered outside interference, but having Palin preach (with a totally straight face) to parents the need to keep their daughter's legs' crossed isn't, perplexes me and many other 'non-social conservative' Republicans.
The treatment of our First Lady by elements of the Party of Lincoln is an embarrassment. To save itself, my Republican Party needs to return to its roots: less government, lower taxes, strong national defense, and fierce protection of individual rights. At the same time it needs to abandon cultural litmus tests like gay rights, prayer in school, and abortion. Political parties are coalitions, not private clubs.
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Hypocrisy is when one accuses someone else of the very crime you yourself are guilty of committing. This obviously applies to Sarah Palin's unfortunate attacks on Mrs. Obama.
I think the bottom line on criticism of Mrs. Obama, and a lot of that directed at her husband, too, is that a large group of people have been really knocked out of joint by their residency in the White House and don't know where to turn to come up with an adequate attack upon them. So, given a kind of underlying mass hysteria, ANY attack will do.
The major source of this problem, it seems to me, is that it is no longer enough to characterize anyone someone opposes as wrong, the goal now is to label them as evil, anti-American and/or motivated to bring the country down. This foul atmosphere has escalated to incredible heights and no one calls anyone down any more for stepping over every known line. The tendency to characterize the opposition as evil in encouraged by the volatile mixture of politics and religion that has been orchestrated by the fundamentalist part of the Republican party.
Take Michele Bachmann (please). She left the presidential race saying she will still fight "Obama socialism". The problem is that the president is not a socialist and is not proposing to take us by great leaps in that direction. He's a capitalist and a screaming moderate on most issues. 50 years ago when McCarthy was accusing half the American govt. of being communist, he never came out and labeled major officials with that charge (he certainly implied they were, which was part of his appeal to the right, of course). Now, the most vile charge is spoken openly without shame. Why not say the Obama's are everything bad? There are millions who believe it, no matter the charge.
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